Deceit Chapter 1
by Numb3rschick
Summary: The FBI team deals with a pattern of bombings and murders, when similiar types of murders appear. With the evidence not adding up and the leads running cold, the team begins to question one of their own. Will the investigation into these mysterious deaths
1. Chapter 1

DECEIT CHAPTER 1

"Did you get anything from those pictures from the office building?" Don said as he looked over his shoulder to Emma, the FBI's most skilled bomb expert, sitting directly across from him at another desk. "Nah. I really can't. The images are just not quite big enough for me and try to detect any sort of residue or evidence that the bomb may have left behind. Can you call your brother and see if he can maybe help my enlarging the images to help see if there was something going on the background? I mean we also have these pictures left at the crime scene show the building ten minutes before the bomb was detonated, and I think there may be something here in this bush, but all I can see is a small shadow. I mean it could be something, maybe even a small shadow of our criminal."

"Actually I have already called him and he said they look like maybe an piece of paper, maybe with an address on it looks as if it's been smeared and part of someone's hand. And if he can make them big enough we might be able to get some prints and run them through the system. I already sent Colby and David out to try and find any traces of the paper, but odds are with the size of the explosion, the paper would have been picked up by the wind."

"Your probably right I mean if nothing else with all the other debris from the explosion the odds of finding this one scrap of paper are slim." All of a sudden Emma looked down at the clock and saw that it read 4 P.M., and she realized the last time she looked down at her clock it was nearly 1:30 in the morning, right after she had been called back in on what they thought was a lead suspect. As it turns out, however, his alibi checked out. "Wow, do you realize that we have been working on this non-stop since the middle of last night," Emma said with a bit of surprise in her voice. Yawning, Don replied, "Yes, trust me I am aware of every single minute that passes by on that clock, making that one more that I have gone without sleep." "You look absolutely exhausted and you know as well as I do that when we're all tired, nothing ever gets done on time. Why don't you go home and try and get some food in you and get a nap. Come on you deserve it, you've been going at it now for nearly 24 hours straight because they told me you never went home last night."

"Yeah I guess you are right. I suppose I'll go over to see my brother and see how's he doing with trying to figure out the exact point of origin and smoke release of the bomb. I'm sure he has something by now, like you said it's been over 24 hours. He is a genius after all. Besides, huh man, I am absolutely exhausted. But you have to promise that if anything and I do mean anything changes you will call me immediately!" "Yes, I promise….absolutely anything! Go find your brother and go and get some rest.," Emma said as she patted the exhausted man on his back and slightly pushed him towards the door, placing his keys to his black SUV into his hand. Just as Don left, Emma opened up her backpack filled with her textbooks, all loaded with highlighted sections and sticky notes. She dug out her notebooks and began to write. But just as soon as she had taken them out, Megan came by and tapped her on the shoulder. Quickly Emma tried to hide the notebooks filled with scribbles and what looked to be blue prints. "Watcha working on there?" Megan said with an inquisitive voice. "UMMMMM..nothing…nothing…just brushing up on a few things for the case that's all." "Then what are all these little scribbles for?" "Oh it's nothing just something that Don is having me work on, it really is nothing. So what did you come over to ask me about?" Emma said with a bit of hesitance and resentment. "Um never mind it's ok, I just figured it out," Megan said with trepidation while giving her partner an odd look. Seeing David and Colby come through the front doors, Megan walked up to them, "Have you two noticed how odd Emma's behavior has been lately? Always working in those little notebooks, scribbling something down when Don is not around." "Actually, yes," Colby answered, I noticed the same thing and was going to ask you. "Yesterday I went up to ask her about the chemicals that the lab found in some of the samples taken close to what we think may be the center of the explosion, and she wouldn't even look me in the eyes. All she kept doing was staring at the case file on her desk and wouldn't even answer me when I asked her who would be able to get their hands on chemicals like these. It's like she was off in her own little world, deep inside her head or something, just her and her bombs"


	2. Chapter 2

DECEIT CHAPTER 2

"Did you get anything from those enhanced images?" An inquisitive voice said in the doorway of Charlie's office. "Charles…Charles…Professor Eppes!" "Huh wow, oh hi Larry. Sorry about that I didn't even hear you come in," Charlie said as he placed his ipod and earphones onto the desk in front of him.

"I can see that your quite busy here, don't let me bother you, I'm just here to observe.", Larry said walking over to the telescope sitting in the corner of the professors office. Just then Charlie turned his gaze towards his friend, "You know I can't work when you just sit here looking at me. Besides I know that you came in here for something, judging from that inquisitive little tone of yours."

Looking around the room Larry noticed all the coffee cups laying around Charlie's office. "I know neither one of us is really that organized Charles, but wow there sure a lot of coffee mugs laying around here, and besides you look exhausted." "Yeah, I know, I have been working like crazy for the past 48 hours on this case for Don."

"Can I ask what for?" Larry said, picking up a stress ball off of Charlie's desk. "Well, someone set off a small bomb in an office building." "Was there any particular significance to the location of the bomb?" "That's the thing, this is the 4th bombing we've had in the last week and half, and we think that they were all set off by the same person, judging by the casualties, the composition of the bomb, and this weird set of numbers written at each scene. I think I can conclude that it is an address of some sort, but we don't know if it's of one of the diseased, killed during the explosion or what because none of these addresses actually yield any places of living. But most puzzling of all is that they are all benign places. I don't think someone was trying to make a political statement or anything. Oh and someone who either works with our criminal or our criminal himself is always present when the bomb is detonated.

"Well how do you know that Charles?" "There are pictures taken exactly 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after the bombs are set off each with messages on the back left at the crime scene, and we have deduced from the handwriting that it is of the same person. Plus they were all signed "The Chameleon"."

" How many casualties have there been so far." " Well counting the one set off just a few days ago, 5. And it gets worse, every time our culprit strikes he takes out more people. He first started with cars, then homes, and now these small businesses." " 5, a very interesting number that is," Larry said, looking at the mathematician to see if he was picking up on what he was trying to say. "Well I suppose Larry, I mean it's prime, it's part of the Fibonacci sequence…..." "Exactly, you said that the killings kept growing in number every time he would strike." " My god Larry you are right," the professor said grabbing the case file Don had dropped off earlier in the week. "Look here, the first kill yielded one kill, and then two, three, and now five, which means next time we are in for 8 dead, and more than likely a larger bomb and a more public place."

"But how did our killer know how man people were going to be in one place at a specific time?" "He must have had some sort of knowledge of every person he killed, where they went at certain times, how many people they worked with, even how many people were in their home at any given hour of the day, so as to eliminate any unnecessary deaths and just target the victims."

" Our killer made sure to place the bomb in the exact point where as to maximize death and minimize the remains that would be left behind…meaning that he stalked the victims in their own work without them ever knowing who he was. Not only that, I think from all of this strategizing and hacking, I believe we are working with a knowledgeable killer."

Just then Michelle, an applied mathematician that often consulted with Charlie on cases such as these, walked in to see the two men knee deep in case files, notebooks, and chalkboards. "What is all this for, another one of Don's cases?"

"Yeah, we are dealing with a serial killer, who is killing seemingly unconnected people, all in very unconnected places. However, he is killing more and more as she goes, and just as Larry concluded, in the order of the Fibonacci sequence. And he is leaving these sets of numbers on the pictures he takes directly before and after the bomb went off."

"Have you deduced yet whether these numbers could possibly be coded and what they could possibly stand for?" she asked while strolling over to the pile of case files placed upon Charlie's unorganized desk. "I have checked these codes against all of my NSA records and own personal databank of codes that I just remember, but nope nothing. However, Larry and I both think that these may be addresses judging from the number of numbers written and the combinations that they form, but when we ran these addresses down no houses existed, just empty or vacant area."

"Yes it seems our serial killer was able to stalk these people in their homes, work, and automobiles. We just don't know in what way or how, if at all these victims are connected." said Larry looking up at the young woman. "Have you gotten the information on our vics. and tried running it through your data mining algorithm yet Charlie?" Michelle said.

" I have, and it's funny that you should mention that because when I ran the identified victims through, other than being the same age and martial status nothing useful was in common with all of these people." "Nothing?", Michelle asked. "Nope, they all live in different parts of California, did not attend the same high school, do not buy the same things, and don't share any time of cell phone carriers, car insurance agents, nothing. Have you got any insight or ideas on all of this?"

"Michelle…Michelle..Mich." "Oh I'm sorry. What? No I mean I'll keep trying to think of some connection. I may be able to use probable game theory to analyze the risks involved in each one, in comparison with the casualties, times when they were killed, to try and give a possible MO and even judging from his past acts, where he may strike. But with just scattered data, I mean I can't promise anything."

" You know I never noticed this picture of you and Don here."

"Oh what," Charlie said, getting up from behind his desk. "Oh yes that picture; it was from Don's birthday two years ago."

" You know what? Seeing this picture, I really think I know this woman," Michelle said pointing to the blonde haired FBI agent sitting directly across from Don.

"Oh yeah, you mean Emma. She's a nice woman, helping us a lot too on this project; she's a bomb expert."

"Yeah I know who she is. I've met her when I visited the FBI office once when we were delivering those data results on that rape case a few months ago. That's when I first noticed her. I found it quite odd. It's like she may have recognized me from the way she looked into my eyes when I shook her hand, but after that she just avoided me the entire time I was in there."

"Yeah she can be like that at times. Just yesterday, my brother said how weird she was acting around Megan and Colby. According to him she never acts like that around him, only when he is not around. Who knows I think she is just shy when meeting new people?"

"But that's the thing, from the way she kept looking at me through the interrogation room, I could just tell in her mind that she was trying to remember who I was as well, and I had completely forgotten about it until I saw this picture of her here. You know what, I do remember, she used to be in my senior physics and b.c. calc classes. I was never that great of friends with her, but then again at that time I wasn't that great of friends with anyone because of my age."

"Yeah, trust me, I understand how that feels," the professor said to her with a little smile on his face.

"I mean I never knew her well, but those eyes, that face, that smile, and that long straight blonde hair. Except this girl was named Elizabeth, not Emma. That I do remember, and what else she was in our class only for 3 quarters, and then one day I walked in, took my seat in the back, as usual, and the professor got up and just told us that Elizabeth's father had been transferred to Pasadena and that she was moving out there. That was the last time I had ever seen her. I mean I didn't know her more than the occasional time we had to work in a group together, but gosh with that sure looks like her, but I mean like I said I barely knew her, I must be confusing her with someone else, I mean after all people's looks do drastically change over nearly 10 years." Michelle said with a bit of hesitance in her voice.

"Yes, indeed your right Michelle. The female encounters the most change from the age of 16 into her early twenties," Larry said. "Well of coarse, your telling a female about how her looks change, trust me I know," she said, sending a smile over to her friend.

"Well anyway," Charlie said " I am going to go call my brother and tell him about this killing pattern that we've deduced, oh and thank you Michelle for helping us out again, I know how busy you are with your dissertation and work with Dr. Madison."

" Sure I mean, whatever I can do to help. Like I said I can't promise anything with such scattered data such as this, but.."Just then Michelle's phone went off. It was Dr. Madison reminding her that she was supposed to meet with him ten minutes ago. " Oh, well I really need to go now, I am ten minutes late to my meeting, but hey I think he'll understand when I tell him I am trying to stop a killer right," Michelle said smiling back at Charlie and Larry, still with obvious curiosity in her eyes as to the similarities between the blonde FBI agent and Elizabeth.


	3. Chapter 3

Deceit Chapter 3

"Don, Don, Don", Charlie yelled as he burst through the doors leading into the FBI office. Don sensed that his brother had something big to tell him from the look on his face and he flew threw the doorway. "I've got something for you, on those last bomb killings—it was something Larry said to me. Here, look at these case files, ok look at the pattern of these killings here, first two people were killed, then three, then five..."

"Ok so you do know that I'm really not following you on all of this right?" Don said, looking at his brother with a bit of inquisitiveness, waiting for him to elaborate.

"Well you see here, the pattern is actually quite simple. It's called the Fibonacci sequence," the mathematician said as he quickly pulled over the white board in front of him with all of the victims' pictures and known information.

Just as Charlie was launching into his explanatory lecture for his brother, Megan and David walked in. "Hey Charlie, I see that we are in for another one of your informative, and oh so useful mini-lectures." Megan said as she pulled up a chair.

"Yes actually you are right—it was actually Larry that realized this first. Look at the pattern in these killings." "Charlie, we have already gone through all of the case files looking for any sort of pattern among the killings. All we can get is that all of victims were killed in an explosion and that our killer likes to take pictures of his crimes with some sort of combination of numbers, which incidentally have you discovered what those may represent yet?" David said.

"No, well yes, well no." Charlie said hesitantly. "Ok come on Charlie, you know this is serious, _please_ just say what you mean and just finish this explanation." Don said with a bit of a raised, irritated voice.

"Ok well for short, we did think that those combinations were addresses, but as you guys all told me, they were just vacant lots, so yes we are still working on them. Anyway, back to Fibonacci," the younger Eppes said.

"The what?" Colby chimed in as he walked through the door.

"Just the pattern that Larry may have found between these killings," Don said.

"Yes, _anyway, _Fibonacci, it's basically a sequence where you just simply add up to two preceding numbers. Here look, the first was two killings, and then three, two and one makes three. And then again, five are dead, two and three makes..."

"Yeah ok Charlie we get it—just tell us what you think," Don quickly said to get his brother to move on.

"Well I think not only are we working with any serial killer, but one that is intelligent and knows quite a bit about maximizing just the number of death's he or she is after, and minimizing anything that may be left behind. And one that is keen on keeping to this pattern, more than likely someone that stalks their victims seeing that he or she strikes with such precision."

"OK, well with that in mind, Megan, I want everything on all of these victims, who cleans their pools, where they bought their car, where they went to high school, _everything!_" Don said as he quickly got up from the conference table and addressed his team.

"But Don, we already did get everything we could from the victims. Your brother even ran it through his algorithm, and by the way where is Emma in all of this? She hasn't been around for the last two days, since that weird textbook incident," Megan rapidly responded.

"Yeah I know," the older Eppes said with hesitation and worry. "She got a really bad case of the stomach flue, so I told her just to stay home. With a case as mysterious as this one, I really can't stand to loose any more of my agents. Anyway, I want all of their families re-questioned, their lives re-examined down to the littlest detail. Are you telling me this killer is just picking people out at entirely random patterns? I really doubt that considering his precision in killing."

"God isn't that convenient that she just happens to get the stomach flu right when the case goes cold," Colby said under his breath while looking at his watch and realized that he hadn't taken a break from the case in well over 24 hours.

Megan seemed to be the only one that heard the agent's snide comment and just sort of snickered very quietly, knowing full well that everyone deserved a break. And don't forget stalking these people," she said getting up from her chair and heading off to find more information, " I mean if he knew just exactly where his victims were going to be all together at one particular time, I'm sure he had to be examining their patterns for a while. And really it's not that uncommon for serial killers to map out every little detail of their victims life before striking, catches them more off guard that way."

Just then Don's cell phone rang with some saddening news, "Eppes," he said, "HUH yeah ok, no I understand, we're on our way."

"What's going on Don?" Megan asked just as she was walking out the door and mouthing something about her odd co-worker's behavior to Colby, knowing full well that this was out of character for her. In her mind, there was just something about Emma's demeanor that rubbed her the wrong way.

"Well we now have more data to try and find some sort of link—there was another murder. Although, yeah Charlie you are really not going to want to hear this, just a single woman, killed in her car, sitting in her driveway, by means of a lethal injection—however, she." He said angrily before being cut off, running his hands through his hair and folding his arms in disgust.

"Another murder, but wait, a single woman, no bomb, nothing that is even remotely similar to these past crimes. It doesn't fit the pattern nothing, Don, why are they--?" Charlie interrupted.

"Well if you would have let me finish _little brother_, then I would have told you that they found the same pictures with the same mysterious set of numbers."

"So what are they thinking, a copycat? Some sort of imposter?" Megan said.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that we are definitely going to have to go check this out, even if it does not turn out. Because face it, if we don't find some sort of lead soon, from anything, their families, just something, more and more people are going to die bombs or not." Don said as he quickly threw on his suit jacket and picked up his car keys.


	4. Chapter 4

Deceit Chapter 4

Don got out of his black SUV with a grim look on his face as he looked upon what seemed to be yet another gruesome crime scene. The Los Angeles police department met him as he walked over to the victim. " So what do we have?" he said biting his lower lip with a look of sadness overtaking his face.

"Young, white woman, seems to be around late twenties or so. Her wallet is still in her purse but her drivers license was removed," the policeman said as the two walked over to where the victim's body laid.

"So other than these needle marks in her arm, did we find any other traces of violence or a struggle?" the FBI agent asked.

"Actually yes, look at this," he said lifting up the back of the woman's shirt.

Seeing the horrible bruises and lacerations on the woman's back, Don had to look away. "So what do we think, was she tortured before she was killed?"

"Well actually, just based on some preliminary observations by the M.E., we are thinking that these were inflicted after she died, indicating that her body was just dragged a long distance to here." the officer said looking at Don, hoping that he would have some insight.

"Why would someone drag a body out here? To a car that is not ever her own? And I guess without an immediate I.D. we can't even trace if this is her car right away?" Don replied.

"Actually, as a matter of fact, the car belongs to those people up there. They are the ones that found her." the police officer quickly replied, pointing towards an elderly couple talking with Megan and other officers on their porch.

"So this couple has never seen this woman before in their lives?" the agent asked.

"Well, that's what they said, but we'll question them more, see if they maybe saw or heard anything."

"Ok good, yeah I want everyone living around this house to be questioned as well, someone had to have seen or heard something, after all who moves a body in the middle of the day time without anyone seeing anything." the older Eppes said as he saw Megan and Colby walking down the driveway.

"Well, the couple is pretty shaken up and have positively I.D. this car as theirs—I saw the insurance papers." Megan quickly chimed in as she walked towards the agent.

"Yeah and we have already started canvassing the area looking for her drivers license, any evidence we can use." Colby responded.

"Yeah I'm going to want to get a DNA and tox screen on her immediately—and get these new photographs off to my brother as soon as possible for him to enhance them and try to narrow his search for commonalities. Oh and these number combinations, I want him with these in his hands A.S.A.P.; he is going to have to go back and rethink the patterns, and I really don't want another victim on our hands." Don ordered as he began taking his gloves off and heading over to a quieter spot, trying to call Charlie, with a disgusted look on his face.

"Hey Don, wait a second look at this," Megan immediately said upon looking closer at the victims arms and legs. " Look at these rock that are indented into her body, not only was this woman dragged, she was dragged across one hell of a rocky road to get here."

"Yeah your right, nice find Megan, and look over there," Don said indicating a house a ways down the street with a freshly graveled drive way. "Hey, why don't you two take David over there to question, I saw a van parked in front of the house on the way down here, may be worth something to us."

Colby and Megan left to go get David, who was talking to the Medical Examiner, to go question the house Don mentioned, when the lead agent's cell phone began ringing. "Eppes," he said. "Oh hey Charlie, uh huh yeah, I am still here at the scene trying to just make something from basically nothing—yeah we do have the pictures, I'll bring them over to your office on the way back to the office." Don said, trying to indicate which house he wanted Megan, Colby, and David to investigate, talk to his brother, and try to get information from the L.A.P.D. officer, all at the same time. "What Charlie, huh I can't hear you, what, ok fine Charlie I am just going to bring over the pictures _alright,_" and with that Don hastily closed his phone in frustration and ran his hands through his hair, trying to collect his thoughts.

Turning around to see his agents begin knocking on the door of the house, Don noticed that the van parked outside of the home. "You know, that really looks like—oh no it can't be, she's home with the flu." the lead agent said under his breath "Gosh, I know the sleep deprivation is getting to me, with that dent in the car, the model, the color of the car, god that looks just like Emma's car, except with different plates. Nah it can't be, I think I am just worrying too much about her being sick, I am just overly tired that's all," he said, rubbing his tired eyes. After that, the thought that it could be one of his agent's cars just left his mind entirely.

01010101010101010101010101010101010101

"Maybe no one is home," Megan said looking to the other agents.

"No, trust me, someone is definitely home, with a car in the driveway, and look the upstairs light it on," Colby responded

"Yeah well what if they just accidentally left the light on Granger?" she responded

"Hang on wait, I hear footsteps," David said, interrupting the two of them.

Just then a woman, who seemed to be in her mid thirties, answered the door, in a bathrobe. "Hello," she asked inquisitively.

"Mam, we are from the Los Angeles FBI, can we ask you a few questions?" David said.

"Yes sure, I thought I heard some commotion going on outside, but it was hard to tell because the shower was running," the woman responded.

"Actually, that is what we are here to talk to you about, have you heard or seen anything strange in the past few days?" Megan asked.

"No, not that I can think of, other than all of the voices of you people this morning, that was the only thing," she said sweetly, trying to readjust her robe.

As the three agents continued to question the woman, they heard a lot of noise going on behind the door. "Shhhhhh", the woman said loudly, trying to keep her sweet and complying nature about her. "Mommy is busy," she yelled back into the house, beginning to raise her voice.

"You have children?" Colby asked, trying to lighten the mood

"Yes, yes I do," she said clearing her throat. "Four actually, and as you can tell, they an be rather roughty." Just then the three agents heard what seemed to be glass breaking. They seemed rather surprised to see the barely clothed woman not do anything about the crash. All of a sudden, Megan saw what seemed to be a man come flying out of the window running very quickly away from the house. Immediately, the three agents took off after the adult, noticing that he seemed to have blood spattered all over him and tar down his pant leg.

"STOP, FBI," They yelled "FBI, stop running!"

At that moment, the man pulled out a gun and began rapidly firing at the three agents, all of whom were not wearing their bulletproof vests. Hearing the blaze of gunshots, Don immediately broke away from speaking with the Medical Examiner and ran over to meet his fleeing agents. "We have shots fired, I repeat shots fired, requesting back up _immediately_" Don yelled into his phone as he was quickly trying to aid his team.

Megan, Colby, Don and David quickly pulled out their guns to try and fend off the shots hurling at them; however, as all four agents began returning fire, more shots from other locations rang out. "Megan watch out!" Don yelled, seeing multiple shooters in the windows of the home. All of the other people present at the crime scene quickly took cover in the elderly couple's home.

The team tried combating the bullets as fast as the could, but just as they thought they may have taken out one shooter, more appeared, and the others just kept letting off more and more rounds.

While returning fire, Don felt a horrible stinging sensation in his thigh and quickly looked down; letting out a yell of extreme pain and seeing the cold blood begin to trickle onto his jeans. "I've been hit, agent down, agent-" were the only words he could make out before collapsing onto the ground from the shot.

"Don, Don, Don, are you alright?" David yelled out, seeing that the leader was laying on the ground, unresponsive to their questions. "Colby, I think Don's been hit, cover me, I need to go over and keep him from being hit again."

With that in mind, Granger backed up where David had been standing and shot into the windows of the house. He managed to wound one of the shooters, but not before they all had run out of the house towards a car.

As the shooters were frantically running out of the home, the man that seemed to be the leader let off one more round of shots, hitting Don in the chest. "DON!" Megan screamed out as she ran over to help her partner, dodging the bullets that were coming at her from all angles, while all of the men, and the woman in the bathrobe, sped away in the dented van, parked out in front of the house. Despite her best efforts, Megan felt herself be hit in the arm, but kept running towards Don to try and help him.

"Call and ambulance", David said with great anger as he ran over to his boss.

The three agents, now all huddled over Don's badly wounded body all tried elevating his leg and putting their hands on his other wound to stop the bleeding, but it was too late, he had already lost consciousness and stopped responding to their hesitant, but reassuring words. As Megan continued to bleed, she began to loose her will power and let out a large scream of anguish and knelt down, grasping her arm, trying to stop the blood.

"We need a paramedic, NOW!" Colby yelled out with furry, hearing the screams and looking upon the body of the barely breathing agent.


	5. Chapter 5

Deceit Chapter 5

"Hello?" Michelle said inquisitively, peeking her head into Professor Eppes' office. "Still trying to detect something in those pictures? Charlie? Charlie—_hello?_

"Oh hey Michelle, when did you get here?" he said as he removed his headphones and flipped through a stack of case files and images.

"Just a few minutes ago, I was just stopping in to see if those new enhanced images I gave you yielded and data and to see if you would maybe like to go and grab a little lunch?" the young woman said, smiling at Charlie.

Looking up at the clock, he replied, " You know what? Sure. I mean I am not getting anything from these data points anyway. Besides, it's not often that the both of us have the entire afternoon off to you know, converse, just the two of us." Clearing his throat and running his hands through his curly locks in nervousness, he subconsciously thought to himself, "I hope that sounded alright, no no no it was fine, it's just lunch, no serious feelings towards her right?"

"Here let me just pack up my computer and then we—" Charlie said before he was interrupted

"No Charlie, no laptop, no case files, nothing, this is just going to be a completely work free lunch. Don's case will just have to get over it, for just an hour, come on, you really need it and so do I., we have both been working so hard lately." Michelle said, nudging the mathematician out of his office before he could have a chance to say any more.

"Here let me just grab my cell phone, you know, just in case." the younger Eppes responded. Michelle simply sighed and gave him a friendly glare.

"Hey!" he said chuckling, " You never know, Dad may call with some sort of earth shattering news. You wouldn't want me to miss _that_ right? And you cannot honestly tell me that there is no work in that purse of yours, come on I know you too well."

"Fine, your right." Michelle said smiling up at him. Charlie quickly looked up his office, and the two headed towards the big glass doors leading out of the math building, when his phone went off. He looked down at the screen and saw that it had pulled up Colby's number. The professor almost didn't answer his phone, seeing that it was more than likely about his brother's case and he had promised to just relax for a little while, but something just felt urgent.

"Hello." Charlie said, signaling to Michelle that he would be really fast. "Wait what? Colby slow down; I cannot understand you." Charlie said with great anxiety. Then he heard them, the sounds of emergency sirens, and in that instant, he knew something was very wrong.

Michelle could tell something was wrong with her friend by how shaky his voice had become. The two immediately stopped walking and she began to ask what was happening. "Charlie, what's going on, what happened, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Hang on Colby, Michelle shhhh." he said with a twinge of anger and frustration in his voice, causing her to recoil away. "Oh my god, how did this happen? Ok, yeah, I understand, I'll be right there." And with that Charlie knew just exactly what had happened to his brother and Megan at that crime scene. Incapable of even comprehending any kind of emotion, Charlie dropped his phone to the ground.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, what's wrong, please talk to me!" she said placing her hand upon his shoulder to try and comfort him.

"Megan, my brother—my brother—they've been shot." the mathematician said very quietly with his voice trembling even more than before.

"Oh my god, where, how bad, how are they, where are they taking them to, which hospital?" Michelle asked, speaking faster than she ever imagined she could.

"Don got hit. Tw-tw-twice. Once in the thigh and once in the chest. Megan was hit in the arm, she isn't critical though. God damnit. This was just supposed to be another crime scene, why did this have to happen?" the professor said to himself as the realization began to hit. " He's in critical condition right now. Basically now we just have to wait now to see if he makes it through or not."

With tears beginning to roll down her cheeks, the young woman turned to Charlie and comforted him before picking up his phone. After a long silence, the two headed towards her car. "Charlie, it's going to be ok, I promise. Your brother is the strongest guy I've ever met. He'll make it through this." she said, getting into the car with the professor and speeding away to the hospital.

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"Yes, his name is Don Eppes. HUH yes, he's 35 years old. No he is not allergic to any medication. Can I _please_ just see him now." Charlie said to the Emergency Room nurses with a bit of frustration and sense of impatience in his voice. "Please, yes I am his brother, Charles Eppes; I really just want to see my brother now!"

"I know, I understand, and you are going to be able to see him very soon, they just need to get him down to the operating room immediately to get the bullet out. But I promise, that just as soon as they get him stabilized, I will call you in right away." the nurse responded, trying to get the mathematician to calm down. "In the mean time here are his things." Charlie looked down seeing his brother's badge and wallet sitting in his hands and bit his bottom lip trying not to break down and cry.

Knowing that he could not see his brother any time soon anyway, Charlie let out a big sigh, rubbed his tired eyes, and went over to sit down in the waiting room next to Michelle and David. "Well of course they won't let me see him now anyway, just trying to evaluate his wounds, and umm---stabilize him. He'll be in surgery for a while to remove the bullet, but they promised to let me know if anything changed. I still just can't believe this happened. I mean this was just such a common thing, how it could get so out of control like that so fast, I still just don't understand."

"Hey Colby, how's Megan doing? Any better?" Michelle asked, seeing the agent enter the waiting area.

"Well, she's going to need quite a few stitches, but luckily the bullet went straight through her arm. So nothing critical, it's just going to be awfully painful while she heals. She was really lucky, had she even turned the slightest bit, that bullet would have gone right through her chest and more than likely hit her heart." Colby replied, informing his friends of everything that the doctors had told him. Hearing that, Charlie shot up out of his chair and began pacing the room, continually running his hands through his hair and staring up at the clock.

"Charlie, pacing and staring at the clock is not going to make time pass any faster." Michelle said, tugging on the back of his shirt in hopes of getting him to just sit back down. "The more you pace, the more nervous you make me. I'm afraid too—we all are. Come on, let's go take a little walk, that'll help make things seem like they are going faster." Listening to his friend, the professor stopped pacing and started to walk down the hall with Michelle.

"So how is Don?" Colby asked David. "I really didn't want to ask when Charlie was here---you know didn't want to make him tell it all over again."

"Yeah." David replied letting out a sigh. " Well, the bullet is still in his chest, and he's in surgery right now to try and stop the internal bleeding and remove the bullet. They did say that they'd let us see him when he got out and was a little more stable, but really at this point, we are just really going to have to wait. The doctor said these next 48 hours are going to be critical."

"That's basically what I was expecting. God David, how did things turn out like this? We have all been trained for these types of things, but man, when it really happens, everything just feels entirely different." Colby said tired, saddened, and still shocked.

"I know what you mean. I mean I was just returning fire as fasts as I possibly could, but I mean with all those bullets flying around, I couldn't even really tell where any of them were coming from. Those bastards that did this to them." David said as he sighed and looked down at his phone. He noticed the number as Emma's and quickly answered. "Hello. Yeah, well he's in surgery now and Megan is getting stitched up. Nah, she's going to be ok. Don? Well we don't know yet, you know how these things are. No one actually tells you anything around here. We won't be able to see him until they get him comfortable in a room, but yeah if you want to come down here. Wait how are you feeling? Ok that's good, I'm glad you are better. Ok see you soon."

"Emma?" Colby said, sounding a bit annoyed and irritated.

"Yep, she's on her way down." the agent responded.

" You know, she is one weird woman. I mean I like her and everything, we get along just fine. It's just the way she gets when Don is around and when he isn't. You know what I mean. Like the other day with all those blueprints?" Granger said. Before David had a chance to answer, Charlie and Michelle walked back into the room with sodas and a few magazines to read.

"Emma's going to be here soon." Colby said to the professor. "Charlie? Hello?"

"Hmm, what yeah, ok, sure that's fine, whatever. Just got what time is it." he said quickly. "It's only been a half an hour, god, how fast is time moving today?"

"Well actually---" Michelle chimed in just trying to make him laugh. "Ok, I'm sorry, I guess this isn't time for this. Isn't that Emma?"

"Hey everyone." Emma said looking at her saddened co-workers. "Hi." they all said in a very bleak manner. The woman went and sat down next to David and asked, "So how's he holding up?" motioning to Charlie.

"Well, other than initial shock, he seems to actually be holding up alright. But you can imagine, he just keeps looking at the clock, pacing around, the usual." he said.

"You're looking better." Colby said, trying to strike up a pleasant conversation with the agent. "Yeah, I think I am over whatever I had."

Two hours passed and everyone had fallen asleep except for Charlie, whose shoulder was acting as a pillow for Michelle's head. Just then he heard the nurses' voice.

"Charles Eppes?" she asked. "Yes?" he said. "You can go in and see your brother now." the woman told him.

"Michelle—Michelle," the professor said, nudging her awake. "We can go see Don now."

"Huh? what? what time is it," she replied groggily.

"It's 11:00 , here come on, let's go see him." he replied "Don't you want to wake the others?" she wondered, but didn't bother to say anything.

As the two approached room 1217, it was apparent that they were overly tired and extremely scared of what they were about to walk into. Without even realizing it, Charlie grasped Michelle's hand as he grew closer to Don's room. "Well, here we are." she said sighing and gazing at the wooden door. "Its going to be ok."

When both of them entered the room, they saw Don hooked up to a resperator and many other unidentifialbe machines. "God just look at him. I mean I always knew that there was a lot of risk involved with his job, but to see it up close like this," Charlie said as he sighed and looked at the tube in his brother's mouth with great sadness and disbelief. There were moniters everywhere, beeping, buzzing, the entire thing seemed like a horrible dream to the mathematcian. "It's like I just keep waiting to wake up from all of this you know?" he said as he turned to Michelle and grabbed onto her, holding onto her, crying in her arms.

"Yeah I know what you mean Charlie," she said finally moving her face away from the young man's chest. "He'll be allright. I mean he's got some pretty amazing doctors looking after him, and I mean he's out of surgery just fine. Afterall, the doctor said that was the most trying part of this whole thing, and he came through this just fine. Don is one of the stronget people I know, he'll be able to fight through all of this." Michelle tried to reassure him that his brother would be just fine, but even she had some doubts, but could never let Charlie sense her hesitations.

"Hey Don," the man said as he reached over and clasped his brother's hand. Charlie could not appear strong any longer and broke down crying as Michelle stood behind the young man rubbing his shoulder. "Come on Charlie, let's go wake up the others." Michelle said trying to nudge the young man out of his seat.


End file.
